Travel stocks jumped big time this morning on news that Pfizer has achieved success in Phase 3 of their COVID-19 vaccine trial.
Their vaccine candidate, being co-developed with German firm BioNTech SE, showed that their BNT162b2 vaccine has a 90% rate of effectiveness with “minimum” reported side effects. The study enrolled 43,538 people.
You can read more about the trial at the Pfizer press release here:
The vaccine has a two-dose schedule, and the immunity should be conferred 28 days from when you receive the first dose.
It’s worth noting that the study isn’t final and so the data isn’t final, but this is unbelievably hopeful news for a restart of meaningful travel in 2021.
Pfizer says “Based on current projections we expect to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.”
Bear in mind that 50 million doses means 25 million vaccinations in 2020. So even the earliest takers of the vaccine are looking at immunity in January 2021 – if all continues to go to plan.
More widespread availability of the vaccine will take some time, but it sure looks hopeful that as we approach summer/fall of 2021, we may be flying and cruising and enjoying Disneyworld – quite possibly mask free.
We should continue to remain “cautiously optimistic” until the trial is fully concluded and the picture on availability becomes clearer, but there’s no doubt this is exciting news indeed.
The stock market agrees, with the JETS airline stock ETF up 21% as of the time I’m writing this, as well as 25-25% premarket gains on cruise lines and Disney up 10%. Marriott is up 16.5% premarket.
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